Kidderminster Golf Club hosted our penultimate match of the season vs Shropshire & Herefordshire where a victory would put us in a very strong position in winning this seasons midland league.

Tom Wakeman and Alex Emms got the foursomes off to a great start with a solid 2&1 victory in match 1 soon followed by another win in match 2 as Adam Norman and Phil Krone managed to eventually get over the line winning their match 1up. Match 3 went the way of S&H as Hugh Adams and James Ilsley went down 6&5. The strong pairing of Richard Sadler and Kieron Austin were out in match 4 and maintained their unbeaten partnership this season with their match going all the way to the 18th finishing in a half. Match 5 saw a new pairing of recent county match play champion Eddie Vernon playing alongside Steve Lane, unfortunately for Worcestershire some good foursomes golf played by S&H meant that S&H took match 5 winning 4&3. Not the start we were looking for but 2.5 each after the morning foursomes left everything to play for in the afternoon singles.

After his recent exploits in the English amateur getting to the last 16, Phil Krone led the side out in match 1, a tough contest but Phil managed to win the 18th with an excellent birdie earning the team half a point.

Match 2 produced another half a point in the shape of Alex Emms, after some stunning golf for the first 13 holes, a couple of bad breaks towards the end meant he couldn't quite get the W but still 1.5 points on the day along with Phil, top work from both.

After being a little disgruntled with his mornings efforts, match 3 saw Hugh Adams get back to doing what he does best which is making birdies, -6 for the front 9 resulted in him winning his match 5&4 which took Worcestershire into the lead.

Unfortunately the next 3 matches did not go to plan...James Ilsley, Adam Norman and Tom Wakeman all suffered relatively narrow defeats going down 3&1, 2&1 and 3&2 respectively.

S&H now 6.5 4.5 in front with 4 matches remaining on the course.

Match 7 and match 9 brought much needed better news as Eddie Vernon and Kieron Austin had both won their games 4&3, Kieron maintaining his unbeaten record this season in foursomes and singles.

All square at 6.5 each with 2 matches remaining on the course, unfortunately Richard Sadler went down 4&3 in match 8 meaning that Steve Lane needed to win match 10 to get a half overall in the match...despite his best efforts having being 3 down with 5 to play, Steve could only manage a half resulting in S&H winning the match 8-7.

A very disappointing result for us but we can't dwell on it as we are still joint top of the league with Nottinghamshire and S&H as all teams have now won 3 matches and lost 1. We currently sit just behind Nottinghamshire on goal difference, Notts +9, Worcestershire +8 and S&H +2.

Our last match is away vs Derbyshire at Matlock GC, a win there would still give us a fantastic chance of taking the title as Nottinghamshire have a tough ask away at Warwickshire. I can't believe I'd ever say this but we'd love a Warwickshire win!!

I'd just like to thank president John Whitehead and past president Brian Peplow for their continued support of the 1st team and keeping the lads fully refreshed throughout the day.

Also a big thank you to Kidderminster GC for looking after us superbly in the clubhouse and the greens team for getting the course in excellent condition along with some added inside info from Matty Ruffinato.

With the league still in the balance it would be great to see as much support as possible for the lads at Matlock GC on Sunday 1st September where hopefully we can take the title!

Adam Norman (Captain)

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